Jekyll Island’s Local Impact

How much does Glynn County benefit economically from Jekyll Island? On behalf of the Jekyll Island Authority, I answered this – and the numbers are substantial. Jekyll Island’s fiscal year 2022 economic impact on Glynn County includes: $1.1 billion in sales (output or gross receipts); $625 million in production (value added); $387 million in income; 9,905 full- and part-time jobs; and $35 million in tax revenue for local government.

Photo David Mark.

The $1.1 billion output accounts for 12% of the output produced in Glynn County, while the 9,905 jobs for 18% of all the jobs (about 54,000) in Glynn County. Jekyll Island accounts for a higher proportion of the county’s employment (18%) than output (12%) because of the high concentration of spending in industries that are labor intensive and the high proportion of part-time workers in lodging, food services and retail.

The multiplier effect enhances the impact of initial spending by visitors, property owners and residents. For example, of that $1.1 billion, $770 million is initial spending by visitors, residents and property owners. Another $290 million in impact is generated by re-spending of those dollars within Glynn County. On average, every dollar of initial spending generates an additional 38 cents for Glynn County’s economy.

These economic impact estimates demonstrate the importance of Jekyll Island as a pillar of Glynn County’s economy, which translates into thousands of jobs, higher income and greater production of goods and services. Due to recent redevelopment, the economic impacts were considerably higher in 2022 than in 2016. Specifically, after adjusting for inflation, output was 25% higher and employment was 38% higher in 2022. Similarly, the number of living units (single-family homes, condominiums, duplexes) increased by 24%. Jekyll Island’s economic impact will likely continue to grow as redevelopment investments become more integrated into the economy.

Although tourism is the main driver, the economic impact of Jekyll Island depends on many factors. There are five categories of spending: day trippers, short-stay visitors and long-stay visitors who are not Glynn County residents, as well as property owners who do not reside on Jekyll (e.g., owners of second homes and rental homes) and permanent residents.

As expected, tourism has the most economic impact. Out of the aforementioned $1.1 billion, $895 million (84%) results from spending by short-stay visitors; $23 million (2%) from spending by day trippers; and $4 million (less than 1%) from spending by long-stay visitors. Nonetheless it’s important to recognize that spending by Jekyll Island’s permanent residents generates $102 million (10%) of the total economic impact. And $37 million (3%) results from spending by property owners who do not reside on Jekyll.

Some details offer more insights. In fiscal year 2022, there were 324,869 day trippers who were not residents of Glynn County. On average, each non-resident day tripper spent about $57 in Glynn County, or about $18 million for the group.

Short-stay visitors are visitors to Jekyll Island who spend one or more nights in Glynn County. There were nearly 1 million non-resident short-stay visitors, who collectively spent $660 million in Glynn County.

Long-stay visitors are those who spend more than 30 days on Jekyll Island and who are not permanent residents (e.g., “snowbirds”). There were 320 long-stay visitor parties, and on average each spent $8,435 in Glynn County. Collectively, long-stay visitors spent $3 million in Glynn County.

Permanent residents occupy 358 homes on Jekyll Island and claim a total income of about $57 million. In addition, there were 689 residential property owners who did not reside on Jekyll Island, including 328 owners of second homes and 361 owners of rental homes. I estimated that the average property owner spent about $47,000 in Glynn County, which represents about 18% of their average income. That seems reasonable given that the average property owner for which Jekyll Island was not their primary residence spent approximately 90 days (almost 25% of the calendar year) on Jekyll Island. Collectively, non-resident property owners spent $33 million in Glynn County.

Jekyll Island is a major driver of the local economy. Even better, the economic impacts have grown rapidly and will very likely continue to increase over time.

Jeffrey Humphreys is the Director of The Selig Center for Economic Growth at the University of Georgia’s Terry College of Business.